Did I say I wasn't going to drag this on forever?  Oh, well.  This chapter is a good bit longer than the others, and was originally going to be the last part.  As it turned out, this should be the penultimate chapter.  Enjoy.

"Debut" - part 7

If the Hapan palace seemed a busy place at the height of the investigation, it was almost literally buzzing with activity this afternoon.  Pleasantries and greetings were mostly forgotten as everyone attached to the Hapan Court marched quickly to their duties.

It is often said that there are fewer things more dangerous than a caged animal.  Stalking the sumptuous living quarters of a guest room was a very impatient Han Solo.

“Ten minutes!  For pity’s sake, I just want ten minutes!” he shouted, berating the tall Hapan guard stationed outside the door.

“The Queen Mother left very strict instructions,” came the muffled reply.  “All guests are required to stay in their quarters until the ceremony, so as not to spoil their appreciation of the event.”  A pause, then, “Is there something wrong with your accommodations?”

“No,” Solo replied resignedly, “nothing at all.”  He turned to his wife, who was sitting quietly, reading a data pad.  “That’s just the problem.  I’m used to rickety dives, where a man is free to come and go!”

Leia Solo shot her husband a look.  “Oh, come on now-- you haven’t been a smuggler for almost two decades, dear.  Your days of rat trap hotels are far behind you.”  She patted the couch beside her, and Han took the hint, sitting down beside her.

“You just hate being told what to do,” she said.

Han nodded.  “Well, at least the boys have something to do.”

“It _was_ nice of them to let Jaina, Anakin and Zekk take small roles in the ceremony, wasn’t it?”

**********

“Master Anakin, please stop squirming,” complained the Hapan stylist for the tenth time.  In the large chair, the youngest Solo pouted and returned to the circuit board in his hands as his hair was trimmed.

Anakin and Zekk waited in the larger chamber of Jacen’s Palace quarters, being prepared for the ceremony.  Tailors flitted around the two young men, constantly taking measurements and making adjustments to their uniforms.

“All I want to know,” Zekk groused from in front of the mirror, “is why we can’t just wear our own clothes.”

The elderly tailor kneeling beside the young man took a quick glance at the hook where Zekk’s work-worn coveralls and patched jacket hung over his battered boots.  The man decided not to comment, then returned to his work.

“So where did Jacen go again?” asked Zekk.

“Oh, you know my brother,” replied Anakin, without looking up from the electronic trinket in his hands.  “He’s in his bedroom, worrying about something or other.”

**********

Jacen stood at the foot of his bed with his eyes closed.  Softly, he mumbled the words he’d been taught, and shuffled through the motions he’d memorized.  Slowly but surely, he performed his part of the ceremony in his mind.

After several minutes, he reached the end.  Sighing tiredly, he took a sip from a glass of juice on his dresser, and thought over the last few hours.

Jacen and Tenel Ka had been rushed straight to the Palace Infirmary to be checked out after the battle.  An hour of painstaking examinations later, the two Jedi were pronounced to be hale and hearty, and were released.  That is, Tenel Ka had been released straight into the custody of Ta’a Chume’s courtiers, and Jacen into the hands of Prince Isolder.

Immediately after being separated from Tenel Ka, Jacen had turned to the Prince, who simply raised a hand to silence him.  “I’m afraid, Jacen, that there’s little you can do now.  I wouldn’t count on seeing my daughter again until the ceremony tomorrow.”  Jacen had recognized the understanding in the older man’s eyes, and acquiesced.

Isolder hadn’t been entirely right, though, as Tenel Ka had been able to make a brief appearance to greet the arrivees from Yavin IV.  She was obviously in a hurry, returning Jacen’s smile with a nod before being whisked away once more.  It had been Jacen’s idea to include the other young Jedi in the ceremony.  Even Ta’a Chume herself was too grateful to the young man to refuse.

Jacen sighed again, and got up.  Humming quietly, he reviewed the traditional dances.

**********

Jaina Solo, like her young brother, sat in a plush stylist’s chair, but much more comfortably.  The chair was reclined, so that Jaina sat leaning back, with one attendant meticulously filing and coloring her fingernails, another applying some kind of cream to her face, and a third piling her dark brown hair into an intricate coif.

“I could get used to this,” Jaina sighed happily.

“I truly doubt that,” Tenel Ka answered from a few meters away.  The young warrior girl was undergoing the same pampering treatment as her friend, but enjoying it far less.

“Why would you say that?”

“Jaina, look at your nails.  Do you think you could service a hyperdrive motivator with those?”

The young woman grumbled.  “I suppose your right, but there’s something to be said for a little pampering now and then.”

“This is a fact,” Tenel Ka replied, eliciting a quick laugh from her friend.  “But wait until they come to do our makeup.”

After a few moments, Jaina finally spoke.  “So,” she began, “how is Jacen?”

“Have you not seen him since you arrived?”

“Oh, I know he’s not hurt,” she said teasingly, “but how are the two of _you_ doing?”

“Friend Jaina, I am not sure I understand what you mean,” Tenel Ka replied, her voice shaking a bit.

To the stylist’s dismay, Jaina turned to her friend.  “I don’t pretend to be an expert on this, Tenel Ka,” Jaina said, “but I saw the way you and he looked at each other when we arrived.  There’s something going on between you, isn’t there?”

Tenel Ka took a few long moments before speaking.  She rose and turned to the attendants.  “Go,” she told them, “leave us for a few minutes.”  Without argument, they exited.

The warrior girl tugged at an errant red-gold curl as she took a deep breath.  “Over the past week,” she said quietly, “Jacen and I have grown... very close.  _Very_ close.  I suppose you heard about the bomb?  The one that was meant to kill your brother and me?”

“Of course I did.”

“It forced me to imagine what life would be like... without Jacen.”

Jaina’s voice was low and serious, as her friend’s.  “And what _was_ it like?”

“It simply... wasn’t.  What I mean is that... I couldn’t conceive of his not being there.”  She swallowed.  “All I can say is... I love him.”

“I see,” Jaina replied.  “I hope you’ve told Jacen.”

Tenel Ka’s eyes brightened.  “I don’t think _I_ was sure of it until I found myself saying those words to him.”

“Hmmm.  And what did Jacen have to say about it?”

Jaina had to struggle to hide her surprise as the warrior girl grinned happily.  “He loves me as well,” Tenel Ka answered.

Jaina settled slowly into her chair.  “It took you both long enough,” she said under her breath.

“What do you mean?”

“What I mean,” Jaina said, leaning over, “is that it’s been pretty obvious for years that Jacen’s crazy about you.  Don’t take this the wrong way, but ever since he first met you, it’s hard to shut him up about you.  And in the last year or two, you’ve been just as bad.  Not in how you talk about him, but in how you act around him.  If the two of you took any longer, the rest of us might’ve had to step in.”

Tenel Ka rose and summoned the attendants.  Taking advantage of the last few seconds of privacy, Jaina turned to her friend with a mischievous smirk.

“So, is my brother a good kisser?”

“What makes you think we’ve kissed?” Tenel Ka retorted, playing along coyly.

“Every time you say his name, you purse your lips.”

Tenel Ka huffed in reply, then sat back down.  As the makeup and hair artists descended on the two women, she whispered softly to herself, “Jacen.”  Immediately, she felt a longing, a calling memory, pull at her lips.  She smiled again.

**********

Jacen stood before the full-length mirror, finishing the buttoning of his shirt.  Turning twice, he began carefully pulling it out of his dark trousers and tucking it back in.

From the sofa where he was pulling on his boots, Zekk laughed.  “Jacen, that’s the third time you’ve done that-- quit fiddling with the shirt!”

“I just want it to be perfect, is that so unbelievable?” Jacen replied curtly.

“But you’re going to be wearing a jacket over it all night!”

“Just put on your boots and be quiet, willya?”

Anakin emerged from the refresher-- finished dressing, but with his light brown hair tousled wildly.  “Jacen just wants to look perfect for Tenel Ka.”

“Is that so unbelievable too?” said Jacen as he dragged his brother in front of the mirror and began to smooth the boy’s hair.

Zekk grinned and leaned back into the sofa.  “So the two of you are finally getting somewhere, then?”

Jacen stopped his work and stepped back, thinking.  Anakin took over himself.

The older Solo brother walked over to the window.  “When we found out that someone was after us, all I could think of was, ‘What if I can’t protect her?’  ‘What if this is the last time I might see her?’”

“Any answers to those questions?”

“Yeah.  I can’t live without her, Zekk.  I love her.”

Zekk chuckled.  “That’s no news.  And Tenel Ka?”

Jacen turned around, lopsided grin in place.  “She’s crazy enough to love me too.”

“Another non-surprise.”

The young Jedi slapped his friend on the back of the head.  “And if you guys knew so much,” he said laughing, “why didn’t you tell us?”

“It’s been too much fun watching you.”

**********

The knock came sooner than they had thought, but they were ready.  Anakin rushed to the door.

“Please tell Master Solo that it is time for him to come to the ballroom.”

**********

Tenel Ka had her eyes closed, breathing deeply, trying to relax herself.  Jaina’s voice was just loud enough to be heard.

“Tenel Ka?  It’s time.”

TO BE CONTINUED…